Thirded.
The Vatta’s War series had me rooting for Rafe (the professional scoundrel) and Crazy Aunt Gracie (The Family Spy with the inedible fruitcakes), not to mention Captain Teddy Ransome, pirate hunter and adventuring gentleman.
Seconded:
The Stand, Stephen King - still one of my favourite books ever, for the characters
SandMan, Neil Gaiman - Morpheus and Death 
Additional:
Imagica, Clive Barker - Gentle and Jude, Clem, Pie, Monday
The Time Traveler’s Wife, Audrey Niffenegger - Henry and Claire
If you want popcorn fantasy then look no further than Tanya Huff’s Summon the Keeper Chronicles. They’re absolute fluff and quick reads but an enjoyable break from more strenuous fare. If you want something that’s just fun and light, I highly recommend them.
If you want something a little more serious and dark, then her Blood Books will fit the bill. Much more creepy and dark then the others. Also, both series are set in Canada and so have an interesting mix of American and British in them, IMO.
I like 'em too! Problem is Tor stopped publishing the series at Ashling so I’ve not read past that.
good news, Achren - Looks like all the books in the Obernewtyn series will be available by the end of the year. I was checking something else on Amazon and book 6 (yes 6) popped up.
Another vote for Vimes - the man’s fighting against alcoholism and corruption, while he’s a true family man. “Where’s my cow?!”
If you want full emotion, go for **Atticus Finch ** in ‘To kill a mockingbird’.
I love Tanya Huff. She has a sci-fi series that’s good, too. (The Valor books.)
Any of Neal Stephenson’s novels. They’re thick and heavy with complex values-bending ideas, yes, but the protagonists (and there’s never any doubt which characters are the protagonists) are always likeable and never, in the context of the setting, morally ambiguous, not even when they are criminals such as Half-Cocked Jack Shaftoe. You always root for 'em.
Awww, Freekalette. When I die (which might be quite suddenly, as I’ve told my sister’s best friend he can have my Discworld collecction if I cork it) your name is on my Ankh necklace 
On another note - I hesitate slightly to mention this, as I read the books back when I was a teenager and I don’t know if they’ve aged well, but the Fitz from Robin Hobb’s Assassin and Tawny Fool trilogies really had my heart pounding for his safety.
+1 to both assertions.
The Vorkosigan books are great.
And the Chalion books are read-many-times books, whereas I rather disliked Sharing Knife. The first one I read was barely a ‘read-once’ on my meter. I don’t read romance which is what the latter is more pegged toward, so YMMV.
The problem with this recommendation, is that after just reading the first book, everyone will think you’re a total sociopath for caring about Jaime Lannister :D.
But I agree :).
What, there’s more than one book out?!
Just about any of Barbara Hambly’s fantasy series. I really don’t care to much for her Benjamin January books, but I’m re-reading her Dragonsbane books now. A few months ago, I reread her Untaught Mage (Sunwolf and Starhawk) series. She puts her characters through hell, so they need all the rooting they can get.
Is this a whoosh?
And yes, I’m the girl who has had the first book for 6 years now and keeps on getting sidetracked with other books. Now I just don’t want to start it, because it’s starting to look as daunting as WoT.
That was going to be my suggestion as well. A well written book and a very likeable character. Definitely my all time favorite.
You are indeed not imagining the sound of deadlines flying by.
Comparing A Song of Ice and Fire with the Wheel of Time pains me on so many levels.
So much, in fact, that I feel compelled to make a bullet-point list.
[ul]
[li]A Song of Ice and Fire (ASIF forthwith) actually goes somewhere.[/li][li]ASIF actually has characters in it, not caricatures.[/li][li]ASIF’s heavy plot is heavy in a solid manner, while WoT is heavy in an spectacularly imploding manner.[/li][li]ASIF doesn’t retcon or deus ex machina with the gleeful abandon WoT does.[/li][li]ASIF characters are on record for never ever having a) Sniffed loudly b) Tugged braids c) Stared mournfully into the middle-distance[/li][li]Martin’s style of writing can be compared to having Christopher Lee read you bedtime stories. Jordan’s writing style can be compared to being hit tenderly in the testicles with a welding lance. Repeatedly . . . . . Thoroughly. (Yes, I went there)[/li][/ul]
Now, I can understand getting sidetracked from reading books that at a distance look like actual, physical bricks. (George, choosing a red colour for nearly every paperback probably wasn’t a good idea.) Lord knows it took me long enough to reread Pillars of the Earth, and I love that book. But ISAF is a worthy project in the same way that paying into your pention is. There’s big payoffs, in the end.
Guku,
Card-carrying ISAF Fanatic.
And Good Lord, how could I have written that post without even remembering to mention Tom and Jack from Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth is beyond me.
Tom, Jack, Ellen and Aliena. I’d say we barely knew 'ye, but to be straight, it was pretty much cradle to the grave. And time well spent.
The 6 book Belisarius series by Eric Flint and David Drake. It’s an sort of alternate history novel where two far-future factions, the posthuman “Great Ones” ( & the crystalline synthetic race they made ) and the Naziesque “New Gods” attempt to shape the future by sending agents into the past. Link the supercomputer to India, and Aide the sentient crystal to Byzantine Rome. They haven’t any tools but their knowledge; the energy costs are too huge to send back weapons and such. So, their human agents are limited to what can be taught to them, what they can make using the tools of the time.
Link and it’s creation “Malwa India” are exceedingly nasty, and it’s satisfying to root for Belisarius and allies when they fight them. Especially when Belisarius dazzles them so they don’t know what way is up; I like clever heroes.
The first four books are available in the Baen Free Library. An Oblique Approach, In the Heart of Darkness, Fortune’s Stroke, Destiny’s Shield. I don’t recall which of the second pair of those comes first.
You should also read Follet’s A Dangerous Fortune. It’s about a Victorian banking family. Which I’ll admit may not sound exciting but keep in mind that Pillars of the Earth is about some guys building a church.